Ceiling fan capacitor replacement help

[Greg Calmly]

Hello, I have an early 80's unknown snoopy designed ceiling fan (I picked up recently). Upon opening up the wiring area, I noticed an oddly wired gray capacitor.

It was attached weirdly and had electrical tape around the caps so someone before me replaced it. All the ceiling fans I have been around had a black box style capacitor with at least 3 wires. So I wasnt sure if this gray round one was normal.

Note there is a screw-hole for a box style capacitor so the original must've been like that. 

I have not tested the fan with it because if its not wired right I dont want to ruin the motor.

Below I have provided a drawing I did of the wiring and a picture of the wiring and funny capacitor.

[Greg Calmly]

What I wanted to ask was I need to probably replace it and dont know what to get.

[Christian Kasprzyk]

Some fans did in fact come with this type of capacitor. I would recommend looking up 6uf 250VAC 2 wire ceiling fan capacitor. As for how it’s wired now, there are so many different variations we would need another fan by the same OEM to really confirm it. Or somebody who really digs into a lot of vintage ceiling fan wiring. While I have tons of them I am never sure myself. Chances are that this fan just has that one capacitor as a run capacitor and that could be what that is. I would maybe try the fan fully assembled for a second and see, too high of a value will damage a fan but over time, testing it for a very short amount of time should be okay as long as there is no major issue. I would check to see what the fan is rated at and how much current you are drawing. If the fan is running really sluggish that's another sign its failing.

[Greg Calmly]

Alright. I will hang it up and test it with the other capacitor. The fan was rated 0.75 amps and 60 HZ 115 volts, etc.

(Im guessing if it draws more than 0.75 on any speed obviously with the light off, I should probably get a lower rating like 3.5 / 4.5 uf) 6uf seems kinda high to me but who knows.

Now this fan never came with blades or blade irons so testing the speed will be difficult but I am still gonna try and run it.

Thank you hundreds for this information, im new to working on ceiling fans and I mostly came from the box fan realm. 👍

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BTW - It is hypothesized that the maker is key largo AKA saff enterprise. and the fan is a 48" according to the model number and research

Heres pretty much the fan I got minus the blades and mine is blue.

I guess these fans had a faulty mounting bracket and alot of them fell. Maybe thats why mine was sort of bent and had no blades or globe 🧐

 

[Christian Kasprzyk]

No problem! I had wondered if it was one of those Saff Key Largos. These did indeed have a bad mount so at some point modifying it would be a good idea. On some occasions you do see a 6uf but who knows what this one needs. Keep me posted and I can try and help if anything else seems off. Good luck!

[Greg Calmly]

Alright. I hung up the fan to run it. Looks like it works with the funny capacitor on all speeds.

It draws around 0.40 A roughly on all speeds and the motor was rated 0.75. So the 6uf perhaps might be good. 

Now this is a silly question, but I thought i'd ask since you probably have experience. I have no blade arms and when I measured the holes it was like a hair over 2 inches.

I see they have alot of sizes for blade arms above 2 inches like 2 1/16 and 2 1/4 etc. My main question off of this idea would be what would you do?

The thing is with ordering online is I hate to get the measurement off by a hair and have trouble returning it. Just didnt know if you had any ideas I may not think of. 👍

Again, thanks for your advice and patience. I know this ceiling fan section is mostly stuff from the early 1900's and im over here with an 80's snoopy fan and probably look silly lol.

[Mark Olson]

I have had to open up the holes in the arms, where they attach to the motor, just very slightly with a rattail file so that the screws start easily.

[Christian Kasprzyk]

Usually, for me, whenever I need new arms I always run to my local fan showrooms that have tons of old parts that they always give me. Obviously that is not an option so your best bet probably would be to check eBay for some reasonably priced arms. If needed do as mark said and open the holes a little bit. Try and get the most exact measurement possible and then order based off of that. From there blades should be simple. There are many replacement sets that are undrilled which you can drill yourself.

[Greg Calmly]

Thanks guys! Ill let you know what happens.

[Greg Calmly]

IT IS DONE !

Like mark said I had to open some holes on brackets from a 52" hugger. Replacements from ebay would've costed $30-40 and I got some + some globes and a hunter locally all for $10. 

I found some snoopy blades on ebay from a different 42" model and together with the brackets it comes out to be 44" which is cool.

Heres some pictures. (the light came with the fan when I got it but may not be original)

(and yes all this took this long)

[Christian Kasprzyk]

Looks great!